]]>NLRB Judge: Boeing Failed To Bargain In Good Faith With SPEEA Boeing failed to negotiate in good faith when it refused to provide evidence to substantiate its claim that workers in the Puget Sound area cost more...Fri, 01 Aug 2014 16:26:11 -0400http://kplu.org/post/nlrb-judge-boeing-failed-bargain-good-faith-speea
http://kplu.org/post/nlrb-judge-boeing-failed-bargain-good-faith-speea Boeing failed to negotiate in good faith when it refused to provide evidence to substantiate its claim that workers in the Puget Sound area cost more...97no Boeing failed to negotiate in good faith when it refused to provide evidence to substantiate its claim that workers in the Puget Sound area cost more...

]]>Boeing CEO: Moving Engineering Jobs Out Of Wash. Will 'Strengthen Our Company' Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney says he understands that shifting engineering work away from Washington state may be controversial, but he says...Wed, 23 Apr 2014 13:47:47 -0400http://kplu.org/post/boeing-ceo-moving-engineering-jobs-out-wash-will-strengthen-our-company
http://kplu.org/post/boeing-ceo-moving-engineering-jobs-out-wash-will-strengthen-our-company Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney says he understands that shifting engineering work away from Washington state may be controversial, but he says...95no Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney says he understands that shifting engineering work away from Washington state may be controversial, but he says...

]]>Boeing's latest move confirms nationwide trend to end pensions Boeing has been – until recently – one of the last remaining places in the corporate world where you could still get a pension in retirement. Now Boeing’sFri, 01 Mar 2013 08:00:00 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/boeings-latest-move-confirms-nationwide-trend-end-pensions
http://www.kplu.org/post/boeings-latest-move-confirms-nationwide-trend-end-pensions Boeing has been – until recently – one of the last remaining places in the corporate world where you could still get a pension in retirement. Now Boeing’s118no Boeing has been – until recently – one of the last remaining places in the corporate world where you could still get a pension in retirement. Now Boeing’s

]]>Analyst calls SPEEA decision on Boeing contract 'total capitulation' Boeing’s refusing to make any improvements in the contract it has offered technical workers. The union says it will now put that same offer out forWed, 27 Feb 2013 19:55:11 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/analyst-calls-speea-decision-boeing-contract-total-capitulation
http://www.kplu.org/post/analyst-calls-speea-decision-boeing-contract-total-capitulation Boeing’s refusing to make any improvements in the contract it has offered technical workers. The union says it will now put that same offer out for67no Boeing’s refusing to make any improvements in the contract it has offered technical workers. The union says it will now put that same offer out for

]]>Boeing engineers' union to tally strike authorization vote Boeing is facing the specter of a possible engineers’ strike even as the company races to get the 787 Dreamliner back in the air. Tonight, the engineers’Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:00:00 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-engineers-union-tally-strike-authorization-vote
http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-engineers-union-tally-strike-authorization-vote Boeing is facing the specter of a possible engineers’ strike even as the company races to get the 787 Dreamliner back in the air. Tonight, the engineers’69no Boeing is facing the specter of a possible engineers’ strike even as the company races to get the 787 Dreamliner back in the air. Tonight, the engineers’

]]>Do Boeing engineers have enough leverage to strike? Boeing engineers in the Pacific Northwest are voting on whether to authorize a strike. The labor dispute is playing out against a dramatic backdrop. TheFri, 08 Feb 2013 13:45:34 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/do-boeing-engineers-have-enough-leverage-strike
http://www.kplu.org/post/do-boeing-engineers-have-enough-leverage-strike Boeing engineers in the Pacific Northwest are voting on whether to authorize a strike. The labor dispute is playing out against a dramatic backdrop. The217no Boeing engineers in the Pacific Northwest are voting on whether to authorize a strike. The labor dispute is playing out against a dramatic backdrop. The

]]>Boeing engineers and technicians to vote on strike authorization About 21,000 Boeing engineers and technicians will vote on whether to authorize a strike. The threat of a walkout comes at a bad time for Boeing as theFri, 01 Feb 2013 17:20:02 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-engineers-and-technicians-vote-strike-authorization
http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-engineers-and-technicians-vote-strike-authorization About 21,000 Boeing engineers and technicians will vote on whether to authorize a strike. The threat of a walkout comes at a bad time for Boeing as the41no About 21,000 Boeing engineers and technicians will vote on whether to authorize a strike. The threat of a walkout comes at a bad time for Boeing as the

]]>Boeing raises its salary offer to engineers and technicians<p></p><p>Boeing has raised its salary offer to its engineers and technicians, but the union is still complaining that it doesn’t adequately compensate its members.</p><p>Federal mediators have been brokering talks this week between the company and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA. <!--break--></p><p>Boeing is now offering increased wage pools compared with its previous proposal, but the company has not sweetened its offer on the retirement and medical plans. Boeing wants to offer new hires a 401(k)-type retirement plan instead of a pension and wants engineers and technicians to contribute more toward health care.</p><p>Mike Delaney is Boeing’s vice president of engineering.</p><blockquote><p>"I have to look at not only the short term of this year of delivering airplanes and building products like the 777 and the 787-9, but to think about the business 10 and 20 years from now that we’re competitive in the long haul," Delaney said on a conference call with reporters. "We want to get to an agreement, but getting to a bad agreement isn’t good for the company either."</p></blockquote><p>SPEEA President Tom McCarty says the latest proposal is still a disappointment, but that the talks have gone better this week. He says this offer is moving in the right direction but not there yet.</p><p>The two sides meet again next Wednesday. At the same time, SPEEA leaders have been taking steps to prepare for a strike, and Boeing executive Delaney says the company has contingency plans if the workers walk out.</p>Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:02:46 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-raises-its-salary-offer-engineers-and-technicians
http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-raises-its-salary-offer-engineers-and-technicians<p></p><p>Boeing has raised its salary offer to its engineers and technicians, but the union is still complaining that it doesn’t adequately compensate its members.</p><p>Federal mediators have been brokering talks this week between the company and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA. <!--break--></p><p>Boeing is now offering increased wage pools compared with its previous proposal, but the company has not sweetened its offer on the retirement and medical plans. Boeing wants to offer new hires a 401(k)-type retirement plan instead of a pension and wants engineers and technicians to contribute more toward health care.</p><p>Mike Delaney is Boeing’s vice president of engineering.</p><blockquote><p>"I have to look at not only the short term of this year of delivering airplanes and building products like the 777 and the 787-9, but to think about the business 10 and 20 years from now that we’re competitive in the long haul," Delaney said on a conference call with reporters. "We want to get to an agreement, but getting to a bad agreement isn’t good for the company either."</p></blockquote><p>SPEEA President Tom McCarty says the latest proposal is still a disappointment, but that the talks have gone better this week. He says this offer is moving in the right direction but not there yet.</p><p>The two sides meet again next Wednesday. At the same time, SPEEA leaders have been taking steps to prepare for a strike, and Boeing executive Delaney says the company has contingency plans if the workers walk out.</p>75no

Boeing has raised its salary offer to its engineers and technicians, but the union is still complaining that it doesn’t adequately compensate its members.

Federal mediators have been brokering talks this week between the company and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA.

Boeing is now offering increased wage pools compared with its previous proposal, but the company has not sweetened its offer on the retirement and medical plans. Boeing wants to offer new hires a 401(k)-type retirement plan instead of a pension and wants engineers and technicians to contribute more toward health care.

Mike Delaney is Boeing’s vice president of engineering.

"I have to look at not only the short term of this year of delivering airplanes and building products like the 777 and the 787-9, but to think about the business 10 and 20 years from now that we’re competitive in the long haul," Delaney said on a conference call with reporters. "We want to get to an agreement, but getting to a bad agreement isn’t good for the company either."

SPEEA President Tom McCarty says the latest proposal is still a disappointment, but that the talks have gone better this week. He says this offer is moving in the right direction but not there yet.

The two sides meet again next Wednesday. At the same time, SPEEA leaders have been taking steps to prepare for a strike, and Boeing executive Delaney says the company has contingency plans if the workers walk out.

]]>Did the Boeing engineers' strike of 2000 succeed in the long run? <p></p><p>When Boeing engineers and technicians walked off the job 13 years ago, they said it wasn’t just for more money. They wanted to improve the culture of the company and chart a new course for organized labor. Did they succeed?</p><p>At first blush, it looked like a resounding success. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, had won a contract with everything they had asked for. Executive Director Charlie Bofferding was triumphant in an interview with KING 5.</p><p>“We’re interacting now based on power and respect, and that’s where we want to be,” Bofferding said.</p><p><!--break--></p><p></p><p><strong>‘Like Christmas’</strong></p><p>There was a lot of euphoria – initially – when strikers headed back to work after their 40 days on the picket line. Tony Hickerson is a Boeing technician who had not struck because his job was not part of the bargaining unit.</p><blockquote><p>“When those people came back to work, it was like Christmas,” Hickerson said. "It was like, they’re back here, and there was a lot of embracing and then boom, let’s go get this done. It was huge. I got chills and I was on the sideline.”</p></blockquote><p>But after that initial exhilaration, reality sunk in. The engineers and technicians had gone on strike to improve workplace culture. Instead, the strike exacerbated tensions. People who had walked out resented people who had crossed the picket lines. Managers felt betrayed. The strikers were still wary of their bosses.</p><p><strong>`Captain of the Titanic’</strong></p><p>Hank Queen had been promoted to a job called vice president of capacity and components – three days after the strike began. In essence, he was in charge of workforce management, but a whole lot of his workforce was outside holding picket signs.</p><blockquote><p>“I hate to say this, but what I felt like was I got promoted to be captain of the Titanic right after it hit the iceberg,” Queen said.</p></blockquote><p>When engineers and technicians did come back, Queen soon realized the depths of the problems. He says people were jumping ship left and right – and these were really talented people, like a friend of his who was a 25-year veteran of the company.</p><p>“This guy called me to tell me how things were going in the workplace and at the end of the conversation, he literally was in tears and he resigned from Boeing. He couldn’t take it anymore,” Queen said.</p><p><strong>Culture shift</strong></p><p>Why were people so unhappy?</p><p>Union negotiator Stan Sorscher says it wasn’t just resentments due to the strike. One of the main reasons engineers and technicians had walked out was to regain a voice in decision-making.</p><p>Boeing had just bought the defense contractor McDonnell Douglas and seemed more concerned with cutting costs than designing new planes. Engineers felt like their good ideas were turned down as the company pinched pennies.</p><p>Then when they came back to work, Sorscher says people were frustrated the atmosphere hadn’t changed in spite of what they thought had been a victory.</p><blockquote><p>“There was a question of broken trust career-wise between the workers and the executives – this was really that challenge,” Sorscher said. “If I’m going to commit my career to your business, you have to convince me you’re in it for the long run. And a lot of people said I’m convinced they’re not in it for the long run.”</p></blockquote><p><strong>The People Plan</strong></p><p>That daunting task of making unhappy people happy and getting them excited to work fell on the shoulders of Hank Queen. He needed to show workers the company was in it for the long run, that managers did respect and value employees. And he had to do it pronto - Boeing was behind schedule on dozens of planes.</p><p>He didn’t know what to do. But he started with something very simple – he listened to each employee.</p><blockquote><p>“If you want to know what people need, the best thing to do is ask them,” Queen said. “Don’t try to invent it, don’t try to guess it, don’t survey it out, don’t do all that stuff, just ask them a question. So to get people better connected to their own manager, we asked people what’s most important to you and why?”</p></blockquote><p>That was the genesis of something Queen called the People Plan. Employees worked with their managers to spell out what exactly they needed to make work life more rewarding. Teams of employees were encouraged to pick processes they wanted to improve and then do it. Queen made these changes in partnership with SPEEA so the two sides weren’t strangers.</p><p>That paid off when contract talks came around. Negotiations in 2002, 2005 and 2008 went much more smoothly.</p><p>University of Puget Sound sociology professor Leon Grunberg co-wrote the book Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers. He says when he surveyed employees in 2006, they were a lot happier than in 2000.</p><p>“What we found is that a lot of the indicators that had gone down – levels of trust, commitment, engagement, identification with the company – improved in 2006 across the board,” Grunberg said.</p><p><strong>Outsourcing threat</strong></p><p>But while all this collaborative work was going on in the factories and design centers, top management was charting a different course. Union leader Stan Sorscher says engineers initially were thrilled when Boeing announced it would build a brand-new, cutting-edge plane – the 787. Then came the disappointment.</p><p>“This is our opportunity as employees to really contribute to the success of our products and the success in the marketplace – alright, now we’re onto something. And then we start looking at how is this going to work exactly? Where do we make our contribution?” Sorscher said.</p><p></p><p></p><p>That’s because Boeing had chosen to outsource much of the design and production of the 787 – a move that later proved to be a costly mistake. But it’s an example of broader forces going on in the economy – globalization, outsourcing, that have made American workers much less secure.</p><p><strong>Example for other white-collar unions?</strong></p><p>People in the labor movement had hoped SPEEA’s strike would spark a new wave of unionizing among white-collar workers, but that hasn’t really happened. Instead, public sentiment has turned against unions, says Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Massachusetts.</p><p>“Within our society, there’s a huge wave of anti-unionism and the perception that when jobs are scarce, unions are part of the problem, not part of the solution,” Chaison said.</p><p>I asked Bofferding, executive director of SPEEA in 2000, whether he thought the strike had a lasting effect on the labor movement.</p><p>“I’d have to say certainly less than we would have liked,” Bofferding said. “At that time, what SPEEA was going for was an attempt to rebrand the labor movement from the people who beat up bad management to the people who made working in America better for everyone. I don’t know that that message stuck.”</p><p><strong>Frustrations building again</strong></p><p>Union leaders say the respect engineers gained from Boeing after the 2000 strike now appears to have dissipated. They say the level of frustration they’re feeling in contract talks this time is similar to back in 1999/2000. They say they don’t feel heard and the company is continuing to emphasize cost-cutting even as profits and revenue soar. Tom McCarty is president of SPEEA.</p><blockquote><p>“When the Boeing Company sits down and says to be competitive, we’re only willing to pay the market average wage, I’m thinking we’re the premiere aerospace company in the world, why would our workforce have to be paid the same as any other worker in any other factory in the United States?” McCarty said.</p></blockquote><p>Labor, he says, has to take a stand against a downward spiral in compensation triggered by outsourcing. And McCarty says if need be, taking a stand might mean another strike.</p><p></p>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:00:00 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/did-boeing-engineers-strike-2000-succeed-long-run
http://www.kplu.org/post/did-boeing-engineers-strike-2000-succeed-long-run<p></p><p>When Boeing engineers and technicians walked off the job 13 years ago, they said it wasn’t just for more money. They wanted to improve the culture of the company and chart a new course for organized labor. Did they succeed?</p><p>At first blush, it looked like a resounding success. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, had won a contract with everything they had asked for. Executive Director Charlie Bofferding was triumphant in an interview with KING 5.</p><p>“We’re interacting now based on power and respect, and that’s where we want to be,” Bofferding said.</p><p><!--break--></p><p></p><p><strong>‘Like Christmas’</strong></p><p>There was a lot of euphoria – initially – when strikers headed back to work after their 40 days on the picket line. Tony Hickerson is a Boeing technician who had not struck because his job was not part of the bargaining unit.</p><blockquote><p>“When those people came back to work, it was like Christmas,” Hickerson said. "It was like, they’re back here, and there was a lot of embracing and then boom, let’s go get this done. It was huge. I got chills and I was on the sideline.”</p></blockquote><p>But after that initial exhilaration, reality sunk in. The engineers and technicians had gone on strike to improve workplace culture. Instead, the strike exacerbated tensions. People who had walked out resented people who had crossed the picket lines. Managers felt betrayed. The strikers were still wary of their bosses.</p><p><strong>`Captain of the Titanic’</strong></p><p>Hank Queen had been promoted to a job called vice president of capacity and components – three days after the strike began. In essence, he was in charge of workforce management, but a whole lot of his workforce was outside holding picket signs.</p><blockquote><p>“I hate to say this, but what I felt like was I got promoted to be captain of the Titanic right after it hit the iceberg,” Queen said.</p></blockquote><p>When engineers and technicians did come back, Queen soon realized the depths of the problems. He says people were jumping ship left and right – and these were really talented people, like a friend of his who was a 25-year veteran of the company.</p><p>“This guy called me to tell me how things were going in the workplace and at the end of the conversation, he literally was in tears and he resigned from Boeing. He couldn’t take it anymore,” Queen said.</p><p><strong>Culture shift</strong></p><p>Why were people so unhappy?</p><p>Union negotiator Stan Sorscher says it wasn’t just resentments due to the strike. One of the main reasons engineers and technicians had walked out was to regain a voice in decision-making.</p><p>Boeing had just bought the defense contractor McDonnell Douglas and seemed more concerned with cutting costs than designing new planes. Engineers felt like their good ideas were turned down as the company pinched pennies.</p><p>Then when they came back to work, Sorscher says people were frustrated the atmosphere hadn’t changed in spite of what they thought had been a victory.</p><blockquote><p>“There was a question of broken trust career-wise between the workers and the executives – this was really that challenge,” Sorscher said. “If I’m going to commit my career to your business, you have to convince me you’re in it for the long run. And a lot of people said I’m convinced they’re not in it for the long run.”</p></blockquote><p><strong>The People Plan</strong></p><p>That daunting task of making unhappy people happy and getting them excited to work fell on the shoulders of Hank Queen. He needed to show workers the company was in it for the long run, that managers did respect and value employees. And he had to do it pronto - Boeing was behind schedule on dozens of planes.</p><p>He didn’t know what to do. But he started with something very simple – he listened to each employee.</p><blockquote><p>“If you want to know what people need, the best thing to do is ask them,” Queen said. “Don’t try to invent it, don’t try to guess it, don’t survey it out, don’t do all that stuff, just ask them a question. So to get people better connected to their own manager, we asked people what’s most important to you and why?”</p></blockquote><p>That was the genesis of something Queen called the People Plan. Employees worked with their managers to spell out what exactly they needed to make work life more rewarding. Teams of employees were encouraged to pick processes they wanted to improve and then do it. Queen made these changes in partnership with SPEEA so the two sides weren’t strangers.</p><p>That paid off when contract talks came around. Negotiations in 2002, 2005 and 2008 went much more smoothly.</p><p>University of Puget Sound sociology professor Leon Grunberg co-wrote the book Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers. He says when he surveyed employees in 2006, they were a lot happier than in 2000.</p><p>“What we found is that a lot of the indicators that had gone down – levels of trust, commitment, engagement, identification with the company – improved in 2006 across the board,” Grunberg said.</p><p><strong>Outsourcing threat</strong></p><p>But while all this collaborative work was going on in the factories and design centers, top management was charting a different course. Union leader Stan Sorscher says engineers initially were thrilled when Boeing announced it would build a brand-new, cutting-edge plane – the 787. Then came the disappointment.</p><p>“This is our opportunity as employees to really contribute to the success of our products and the success in the marketplace – alright, now we’re onto something. And then we start looking at how is this going to work exactly? Where do we make our contribution?” Sorscher said.</p><p></p><p></p><p>That’s because Boeing had chosen to outsource much of the design and production of the 787 – a move that later proved to be a costly mistake. But it’s an example of broader forces going on in the economy – globalization, outsourcing, that have made American workers much less secure.</p><p><strong>Example for other white-collar unions?</strong></p><p>People in the labor movement had hoped SPEEA’s strike would spark a new wave of unionizing among white-collar workers, but that hasn’t really happened. Instead, public sentiment has turned against unions, says Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Massachusetts.</p><p>“Within our society, there’s a huge wave of anti-unionism and the perception that when jobs are scarce, unions are part of the problem, not part of the solution,” Chaison said.</p><p>I asked Bofferding, executive director of SPEEA in 2000, whether he thought the strike had a lasting effect on the labor movement.</p><p>“I’d have to say certainly less than we would have liked,” Bofferding said. “At that time, what SPEEA was going for was an attempt to rebrand the labor movement from the people who beat up bad management to the people who made working in America better for everyone. I don’t know that that message stuck.”</p><p><strong>Frustrations building again</strong></p><p>Union leaders say the respect engineers gained from Boeing after the 2000 strike now appears to have dissipated. They say the level of frustration they’re feeling in contract talks this time is similar to back in 1999/2000. They say they don’t feel heard and the company is continuing to emphasize cost-cutting even as profits and revenue soar. Tom McCarty is president of SPEEA.</p><blockquote><p>“When the Boeing Company sits down and says to be competitive, we’re only willing to pay the market average wage, I’m thinking we’re the premiere aerospace company in the world, why would our workforce have to be paid the same as any other worker in any other factory in the United States?” McCarty said.</p></blockquote><p>Labor, he says, has to take a stand against a downward spiral in compensation triggered by outsourcing. And McCarty says if need be, taking a stand might mean another strike.</p><p></p>413no

When Boeing engineers and technicians walked off the job 13 years ago, they said it wasn’t just for more money. They wanted to improve the culture of the company and chart a new course for organized labor. Did they succeed?

At first blush, it looked like a resounding success. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, had won a contract with everything they had asked for. Executive Director Charlie Bofferding was triumphant in an interview with KING 5.

“We’re interacting now based on power and respect, and that’s where we want to be,” Bofferding said.

‘Like Christmas’

There was a lot of euphoria – initially – when strikers headed back to work after their 40 days on the picket line. Tony Hickerson is a Boeing technician who had not struck because his job was not part of the bargaining unit.

“When those people came back to work, it was like Christmas,” Hickerson said. "It was like, they’re back here, and there was a lot of embracing and then boom, let’s go get this done. It was huge. I got chills and I was on the sideline.”

But after that initial exhilaration, reality sunk in. The engineers and technicians had gone on strike to improve workplace culture. Instead, the strike exacerbated tensions. People who had walked out resented people who had crossed the picket lines. Managers felt betrayed. The strikers were still wary of their bosses.

`Captain of the Titanic’

Hank Queen had been promoted to a job called vice president of capacity and components – three days after the strike began. In essence, he was in charge of workforce management, but a whole lot of his workforce was outside holding picket signs.

“I hate to say this, but what I felt like was I got promoted to be captain of the Titanic right after it hit the iceberg,” Queen said.

When engineers and technicians did come back, Queen soon realized the depths of the problems. He says people were jumping ship left and right – and these were really talented people, like a friend of his who was a 25-year veteran of the company.

“This guy called me to tell me how things were going in the workplace and at the end of the conversation, he literally was in tears and he resigned from Boeing. He couldn’t take it anymore,” Queen said.

Culture shift

Why were people so unhappy?

Union negotiator Stan Sorscher says it wasn’t just resentments due to the strike. One of the main reasons engineers and technicians had walked out was to regain a voice in decision-making.

Boeing had just bought the defense contractor McDonnell Douglas and seemed more concerned with cutting costs than designing new planes. Engineers felt like their good ideas were turned down as the company pinched pennies.

Then when they came back to work, Sorscher says people were frustrated the atmosphere hadn’t changed in spite of what they thought had been a victory.

“There was a question of broken trust career-wise between the workers and the executives – this was really that challenge,” Sorscher said. “If I’m going to commit my career to your business, you have to convince me you’re in it for the long run. And a lot of people said I’m convinced they’re not in it for the long run.”

The People Plan

That daunting task of making unhappy people happy and getting them excited to work fell on the shoulders of Hank Queen. He needed to show workers the company was in it for the long run, that managers did respect and value employees. And he had to do it pronto - Boeing was behind schedule on dozens of planes.

He didn’t know what to do. But he started with something very simple – he listened to each employee.

“If you want to know what people need, the best thing to do is ask them,” Queen said. “Don’t try to invent it, don’t try to guess it, don’t survey it out, don’t do all that stuff, just ask them a question. So to get people better connected to their own manager, we asked people what’s most important to you and why?”

That was the genesis of something Queen called the People Plan. Employees worked with their managers to spell out what exactly they needed to make work life more rewarding. Teams of employees were encouraged to pick processes they wanted to improve and then do it. Queen made these changes in partnership with SPEEA so the two sides weren’t strangers.

That paid off when contract talks came around. Negotiations in 2002, 2005 and 2008 went much more smoothly.

University of Puget Sound sociology professor Leon Grunberg co-wrote the book Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers. He says when he surveyed employees in 2006, they were a lot happier than in 2000.

“What we found is that a lot of the indicators that had gone down – levels of trust, commitment, engagement, identification with the company – improved in 2006 across the board,” Grunberg said.

Outsourcing threat

But while all this collaborative work was going on in the factories and design centers, top management was charting a different course. Union leader Stan Sorscher says engineers initially were thrilled when Boeing announced it would build a brand-new, cutting-edge plane – the 787. Then came the disappointment.

“This is our opportunity as employees to really contribute to the success of our products and the success in the marketplace – alright, now we’re onto something. And then we start looking at how is this going to work exactly? Where do we make our contribution?” Sorscher said.

That’s because Boeing had chosen to outsource much of the design and production of the 787 – a move that later proved to be a costly mistake. But it’s an example of broader forces going on in the economy – globalization, outsourcing, that have made American workers much less secure.

Example for other white-collar unions?

People in the labor movement had hoped SPEEA’s strike would spark a new wave of unionizing among white-collar workers, but that hasn’t really happened. Instead, public sentiment has turned against unions, says Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Massachusetts.

“Within our society, there’s a huge wave of anti-unionism and the perception that when jobs are scarce, unions are part of the problem, not part of the solution,” Chaison said.

I asked Bofferding, executive director of SPEEA in 2000, whether he thought the strike had a lasting effect on the labor movement.

“I’d have to say certainly less than we would have liked,” Bofferding said. “At that time, what SPEEA was going for was an attempt to rebrand the labor movement from the people who beat up bad management to the people who made working in America better for everyone. I don’t know that that message stuck.”

Frustrations building again

Union leaders say the respect engineers gained from Boeing after the 2000 strike now appears to have dissipated. They say the level of frustration they’re feeling in contract talks this time is similar to back in 1999/2000. They say they don’t feel heard and the company is continuing to emphasize cost-cutting even as profits and revenue soar. Tom McCarty is president of SPEEA.

“When the Boeing Company sits down and says to be competitive, we’re only willing to pay the market average wage, I’m thinking we’re the premiere aerospace company in the world, why would our workforce have to be paid the same as any other worker in any other factory in the United States?” McCarty said.

Labor, he says, has to take a stand against a downward spiral in compensation triggered by outsourcing. And McCarty says if need be, taking a stand might mean another strike.

]]>Boeing engineers' strike in 2000 casts shadow over current talks<p></p><p>Boeing engineers and the company are supposed to meet with a federal mediator today – but union leaders say the two sides are still far apart. Looming over the negotiations is a memory that's 13 years old, but still fresh for many.</p><p>In early 2000, Boeing engineers and technicians did what nobody expected them to do – walk off the job and stay off.</p><p><!--break--></p><p>At 9:00 a.m. on Feb. 9, 2000, thousands of Boeing engineers and technicians stood up, grabbed their jackets and streamed out the doors - in Renton, Everett, Kent, Tukwila, Auburn - all over the Puget Sound region.&#160;</p><blockquote><p>"Right in the middle of one of the meetings with the FAA at 9:00 in the morning, we said excuse us, we have to go now," said Boeing technician Judy Mogan. "We walked out through the building and then out the gates in unison. It was just incredible."</p></blockquote><p><strong>One of the largest white-collar strikes in history</strong></p><p>Nobody really imagined these folks would take collective action like that - much less more than 17,000 of them, dwarfing even the infamous air traffic controllers strike under President Reagan.</p><p>It was unlikely for a lot of reasons. The Boeing engineers were self-proclaimed nerds – more analytical than radical. Many of them didn't see the need for a union. Membership in the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace - or SPEEA - was voluntary. Not even half were paying dues when negotiations began.</p><p>The only other strike in the union's history was a halfhearted one-day affair in 1993. So what moved these white-collar professionals to take a page from blue-collar unions and strike for 40 days in 2000?</p><p></p><p><strong>'Red-haired stepchildren of Boeing'</strong></p><p>There were lots of things that rankled the engineers. Number 1: the machinists’ contract. They had gotten a bonus, and they didn’t have to pay for their medical plan. With the threat of a machinists' strike looming, CEO Phil Condit appeared at the table in the 11th hour to broker a deal, and then afterward said it was the "best wages and retirement plan in the industry." The machinists trumpeted that it was the best contract in aerospace.</p><p>Then came Boeing’s offer to SPEEA – it landed with a thud. No bonus. A less generous medical plan. Disappointing wage increases. SPEEA’s current president Tom McCarty was on the negotiating team back then. He says engineers and technicians didn’t feel valued.</p><blockquote><p>"They felt like the red-haired stepchildren of Boeing. They got a crummy deal," McCarty said. "You know, people personalize that."</p></blockquote><p><strong>'SPEEA wants the same outstanding contract'</strong></p><p>But was the SPEEA offer really such a bad deal?</p><p>A lot comes down to perception. Geoff Stamper was Boeing’s chief negotiator in the SPEEA talks. He says the machinists, for example, didn’t get the 401(k) match that was offered to the engineers. Really, he says the machinists’ contract wasn’t that much better.</p><blockquote><p>"It had its own drawbacks. But the union leadership at the point they decide this is the best they’re going to get, they sell it as outstanding, the company sells it as outstanding, SPEEA wants the same outstanding contract," Stamper said. "We’re in the unfortunate position that we can’t really talk about the cons to their contract."</p></blockquote><p>That would have made the machinists unhappy, he says.</p><p><strong>Growing workplace dissatisfaction</strong></p><p>But the backdrop to the contentious talks with the engineers was growing dissatisfaction in the workplace. Boeing had just bought the defense company McDonnell Douglas and seemed to import what SPEEA leaders say was its bean-counting, anti-union culture.</p><p>A new vice president ticked off the engineers even more by saying they had to understand they were no longer at the center of the universe.</p><p>Stan Sorscher led the SPEEA negotiating team in 2000.</p><p>"It sent the message – you’re just a commodity," Sorscher said. "If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out."</p><p>The engineers and technicians said what they wanted was respect and more say in their work.</p><p>All of this led up to February 9<sup>th</sup>, 2000. A federal mediator failed to broker a deal. The union had voted narrowly to strike – but how many would walk?</p><p><strong>A heck of a burn barrel</strong></p><p>The answer was -&#160; thousands. They rallied and then hit the picket sites, which they engineered with characteristic attention to detail. Instead of spending his days designing military radar, SPEEA leader Tom McCarty crafted a heck of a burn barrel.</p><blockquote><p>"We took the barrel and there were lids available down at the junkyard, so we got some lids and some stove pipe – turned out these worked a lot better than the open barrels," McCarty said. He's since printed up a brochure on how to create one.</p></blockquote><p>McCarty’s burn barrels polluted less, gave off more heat and have since been used by other strikers.</p><p></p><p>But these meticulous folks also embraced the theater of the strike. They marched to bagpipe music, cooked hot dogs, pancakes and chili on the burn barrels - and one union member got creative in his attempt to get management's attention.</p><p>He "decided he'd learn to play the trumpet during the strike," says John McLaren, a 33-year Boeing engineer and a member of SPEEA's current negotiating team. But really all that guy wanted to do was aim his trumpet at corporate headquarters and blast unlistenable sounds out of it.</p><p>"I think maybe he wasn't serious about learning to play," McLaren says.</p><p></p><p>There was a lot of joking around, but it wasn’t always easy. Some strikers had trouble paying their bills. Money did stream in from other unions, and people in the Puget Sound region donated food – even a truckload of onions. And it turned out the company was suffering more than the strikers.</p><p>The company failed to deliver three dozen airplanes, according to Seattle Times reports.</p><p><strong>Wall Street pressure?</strong></p><p>The stock was dropping, investors were getting mad. Union negotiator Stan Sorscher and SPEEA Executive Director Charlie Bofferding flew down to Napa Valley to crash a Boeing investor conference. They met with money managers who asked them what they wanted. Sorscher says they told them the dollar amount and one big investor who had been scribbling the figures down, stopped.</p><blockquote><p>"And he got to the number at the bottom and he goes, I lose that in round-off error every day – you know this is nothing to me," Sorscher said. "And he slams his notebook, his little folder, and he says okay, good, and three days later, the wheels were moving."</p></blockquote><p>Sorscher believes the investors put pressure on Boeing to meet the union’s terms. In the end, the company gave them everything they wanted. Bigger raises, no medical cost-sharing, a bonus – and the promise of a say in the future of the company.</p><p>Cynthia Cole later became president of the union. She says it was a clear-cut win.</p><p>"We knew we could hang out longer than they could – and we did," Cole said.</p><p>It was a victory – but for how long? Tomorrow, KPLU will explore the aftermath at Boeing and for the broader labor movement tomorrow.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Wed, 09 Jan 2013 08:00:00 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-engineers-strike-2000-casts-shadow-over-current-talks
http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-engineers-strike-2000-casts-shadow-over-current-talks<p></p><p>Boeing engineers and the company are supposed to meet with a federal mediator today – but union leaders say the two sides are still far apart. Looming over the negotiations is a memory that's 13 years old, but still fresh for many.</p><p>In early 2000, Boeing engineers and technicians did what nobody expected them to do – walk off the job and stay off.</p><p><!--break--></p><p>At 9:00 a.m. on Feb. 9, 2000, thousands of Boeing engineers and technicians stood up, grabbed their jackets and streamed out the doors - in Renton, Everett, Kent, Tukwila, Auburn - all over the Puget Sound region.&#160;</p><blockquote><p>"Right in the middle of one of the meetings with the FAA at 9:00 in the morning, we said excuse us, we have to go now," said Boeing technician Judy Mogan. "We walked out through the building and then out the gates in unison. It was just incredible."</p></blockquote><p><strong>One of the largest white-collar strikes in history</strong></p><p>Nobody really imagined these folks would take collective action like that - much less more than 17,000 of them, dwarfing even the infamous air traffic controllers strike under President Reagan.</p><p>It was unlikely for a lot of reasons. The Boeing engineers were self-proclaimed nerds – more analytical than radical. Many of them didn't see the need for a union. Membership in the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace - or SPEEA - was voluntary. Not even half were paying dues when negotiations began.</p><p>The only other strike in the union's history was a halfhearted one-day affair in 1993. So what moved these white-collar professionals to take a page from blue-collar unions and strike for 40 days in 2000?</p><p></p><p><strong>'Red-haired stepchildren of Boeing'</strong></p><p>There were lots of things that rankled the engineers. Number 1: the machinists’ contract. They had gotten a bonus, and they didn’t have to pay for their medical plan. With the threat of a machinists' strike looming, CEO Phil Condit appeared at the table in the 11th hour to broker a deal, and then afterward said it was the "best wages and retirement plan in the industry." The machinists trumpeted that it was the best contract in aerospace.</p><p>Then came Boeing’s offer to SPEEA – it landed with a thud. No bonus. A less generous medical plan. Disappointing wage increases. SPEEA’s current president Tom McCarty was on the negotiating team back then. He says engineers and technicians didn’t feel valued.</p><blockquote><p>"They felt like the red-haired stepchildren of Boeing. They got a crummy deal," McCarty said. "You know, people personalize that."</p></blockquote><p><strong>'SPEEA wants the same outstanding contract'</strong></p><p>But was the SPEEA offer really such a bad deal?</p><p>A lot comes down to perception. Geoff Stamper was Boeing’s chief negotiator in the SPEEA talks. He says the machinists, for example, didn’t get the 401(k) match that was offered to the engineers. Really, he says the machinists’ contract wasn’t that much better.</p><blockquote><p>"It had its own drawbacks. But the union leadership at the point they decide this is the best they’re going to get, they sell it as outstanding, the company sells it as outstanding, SPEEA wants the same outstanding contract," Stamper said. "We’re in the unfortunate position that we can’t really talk about the cons to their contract."</p></blockquote><p>That would have made the machinists unhappy, he says.</p><p><strong>Growing workplace dissatisfaction</strong></p><p>But the backdrop to the contentious talks with the engineers was growing dissatisfaction in the workplace. Boeing had just bought the defense company McDonnell Douglas and seemed to import what SPEEA leaders say was its bean-counting, anti-union culture.</p><p>A new vice president ticked off the engineers even more by saying they had to understand they were no longer at the center of the universe.</p><p>Stan Sorscher led the SPEEA negotiating team in 2000.</p><p>"It sent the message – you’re just a commodity," Sorscher said. "If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out."</p><p>The engineers and technicians said what they wanted was respect and more say in their work.</p><p>All of this led up to February 9<sup>th</sup>, 2000. A federal mediator failed to broker a deal. The union had voted narrowly to strike – but how many would walk?</p><p><strong>A heck of a burn barrel</strong></p><p>The answer was -&#160; thousands. They rallied and then hit the picket sites, which they engineered with characteristic attention to detail. Instead of spending his days designing military radar, SPEEA leader Tom McCarty crafted a heck of a burn barrel.</p><blockquote><p>"We took the barrel and there were lids available down at the junkyard, so we got some lids and some stove pipe – turned out these worked a lot better than the open barrels," McCarty said. He's since printed up a brochure on how to create one.</p></blockquote><p>McCarty’s burn barrels polluted less, gave off more heat and have since been used by other strikers.</p><p></p><p>But these meticulous folks also embraced the theater of the strike. They marched to bagpipe music, cooked hot dogs, pancakes and chili on the burn barrels - and one union member got creative in his attempt to get management's attention.</p><p>He "decided he'd learn to play the trumpet during the strike," says John McLaren, a 33-year Boeing engineer and a member of SPEEA's current negotiating team. But really all that guy wanted to do was aim his trumpet at corporate headquarters and blast unlistenable sounds out of it.</p><p>"I think maybe he wasn't serious about learning to play," McLaren says.</p><p></p><p>There was a lot of joking around, but it wasn’t always easy. Some strikers had trouble paying their bills. Money did stream in from other unions, and people in the Puget Sound region donated food – even a truckload of onions. And it turned out the company was suffering more than the strikers.</p><p>The company failed to deliver three dozen airplanes, according to Seattle Times reports.</p><p><strong>Wall Street pressure?</strong></p><p>The stock was dropping, investors were getting mad. Union negotiator Stan Sorscher and SPEEA Executive Director Charlie Bofferding flew down to Napa Valley to crash a Boeing investor conference. They met with money managers who asked them what they wanted. Sorscher says they told them the dollar amount and one big investor who had been scribbling the figures down, stopped.</p><blockquote><p>"And he got to the number at the bottom and he goes, I lose that in round-off error every day – you know this is nothing to me," Sorscher said. "And he slams his notebook, his little folder, and he says okay, good, and three days later, the wheels were moving."</p></blockquote><p>Sorscher believes the investors put pressure on Boeing to meet the union’s terms. In the end, the company gave them everything they wanted. Bigger raises, no medical cost-sharing, a bonus – and the promise of a say in the future of the company.</p><p>Cynthia Cole later became president of the union. She says it was a clear-cut win.</p><p>"We knew we could hang out longer than they could – and we did," Cole said.</p><p>It was a victory – but for how long? Tomorrow, KPLU will explore the aftermath at Boeing and for the broader labor movement tomorrow.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>356no

Boeing engineers and the company are supposed to meet with a federal mediator today – but union leaders say the two sides are still far apart. Looming over the negotiations is a memory that's 13 years old, but still fresh for many.

In early 2000, Boeing engineers and technicians did what nobody expected them to do – walk off the job and stay off.

At 9:00 a.m. on Feb. 9, 2000, thousands of Boeing engineers and technicians stood up, grabbed their jackets and streamed out the doors - in Renton, Everett, Kent, Tukwila, Auburn - all over the Puget Sound region.

"Right in the middle of one of the meetings with the FAA at 9:00 in the morning, we said excuse us, we have to go now," said Boeing technician Judy Mogan. "We walked out through the building and then out the gates in unison. It was just incredible."

One of the largest white-collar strikes in history

Nobody really imagined these folks would take collective action like that - much less more than 17,000 of them, dwarfing even the infamous air traffic controllers strike under President Reagan.

It was unlikely for a lot of reasons. The Boeing engineers were self-proclaimed nerds – more analytical than radical. Many of them didn't see the need for a union. Membership in the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace - or SPEEA - was voluntary. Not even half were paying dues when negotiations began.

The only other strike in the union's history was a halfhearted one-day affair in 1993. So what moved these white-collar professionals to take a page from blue-collar unions and strike for 40 days in 2000?

'Red-haired stepchildren of Boeing'

There were lots of things that rankled the engineers. Number 1: the machinists’ contract. They had gotten a bonus, and they didn’t have to pay for their medical plan. With the threat of a machinists' strike looming, CEO Phil Condit appeared at the table in the 11th hour to broker a deal, and then afterward said it was the "best wages and retirement plan in the industry." The machinists trumpeted that it was the best contract in aerospace.

Then came Boeing’s offer to SPEEA – it landed with a thud. No bonus. A less generous medical plan. Disappointing wage increases. SPEEA’s current president Tom McCarty was on the negotiating team back then. He says engineers and technicians didn’t feel valued.

"They felt like the red-haired stepchildren of Boeing. They got a crummy deal," McCarty said. "You know, people personalize that."

'SPEEA wants the same outstanding contract'

But was the SPEEA offer really such a bad deal?

A lot comes down to perception. Geoff Stamper was Boeing’s chief negotiator in the SPEEA talks. He says the machinists, for example, didn’t get the 401(k) match that was offered to the engineers. Really, he says the machinists’ contract wasn’t that much better.

"It had its own drawbacks. But the union leadership at the point they decide this is the best they’re going to get, they sell it as outstanding, the company sells it as outstanding, SPEEA wants the same outstanding contract," Stamper said. "We’re in the unfortunate position that we can’t really talk about the cons to their contract."

That would have made the machinists unhappy, he says.

Growing workplace dissatisfaction

But the backdrop to the contentious talks with the engineers was growing dissatisfaction in the workplace. Boeing had just bought the defense company McDonnell Douglas and seemed to import what SPEEA leaders say was its bean-counting, anti-union culture.

A new vice president ticked off the engineers even more by saying they had to understand they were no longer at the center of the universe.

Stan Sorscher led the SPEEA negotiating team in 2000.

"It sent the message – you’re just a commodity," Sorscher said. "If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out."

The engineers and technicians said what they wanted was respect and more say in their work.

All of this led up to February 9th, 2000. A federal mediator failed to broker a deal. The union had voted narrowly to strike – but how many would walk?

A heck of a burn barrel

The answer was - thousands. They rallied and then hit the picket sites, which they engineered with characteristic attention to detail. Instead of spending his days designing military radar, SPEEA leader Tom McCarty crafted a heck of a burn barrel.

"We took the barrel and there were lids available down at the junkyard, so we got some lids and some stove pipe – turned out these worked a lot better than the open barrels," McCarty said. He's since printed up a brochure on how to create one.

McCarty’s burn barrels polluted less, gave off more heat and have since been used by other strikers.

But these meticulous folks also embraced the theater of the strike. They marched to bagpipe music, cooked hot dogs, pancakes and chili on the burn barrels - and one union member got creative in his attempt to get management's attention.

He "decided he'd learn to play the trumpet during the strike," says John McLaren, a 33-year Boeing engineer and a member of SPEEA's current negotiating team. But really all that guy wanted to do was aim his trumpet at corporate headquarters and blast unlistenable sounds out of it.

There was a lot of joking around, but it wasn’t always easy. Some strikers had trouble paying their bills. Money did stream in from other unions, and people in the Puget Sound region donated food – even a truckload of onions. And it turned out the company was suffering more than the strikers.

The company failed to deliver three dozen airplanes, according to Seattle Times reports.

Wall Street pressure?

The stock was dropping, investors were getting mad. Union negotiator Stan Sorscher and SPEEA Executive Director Charlie Bofferding flew down to Napa Valley to crash a Boeing investor conference. They met with money managers who asked them what they wanted. Sorscher says they told them the dollar amount and one big investor who had been scribbling the figures down, stopped.

"And he got to the number at the bottom and he goes, I lose that in round-off error every day – you know this is nothing to me," Sorscher said. "And he slams his notebook, his little folder, and he says okay, good, and three days later, the wheels were moving."

Sorscher believes the investors put pressure on Boeing to meet the union’s terms. In the end, the company gave them everything they wanted. Bigger raises, no medical cost-sharing, a bonus – and the promise of a say in the future of the company.

Cynthia Cole later became president of the union. She says it was a clear-cut win.

"We knew we could hang out longer than they could – and we did," Cole said.

It was a victory – but for how long? Tomorrow, KPLU will explore the aftermath at Boeing and for the broader labor movement tomorrow.

]]>Picket training begins as SPEEA preps for a possible Boeing strike<p></p><p>Contract talks between Boeing and its engineers union are suspended till after the new year. But the union, SPEEA, is not standing still - they're training picket captains for a possible strike.</p><p><!--break--></p><p>About 60 Boeing engineers and technicians pack into a room at union headquarters at dinnertime. They munch on sandwiches and listen to SPEEA organizer Carrie Blackwood lay out the drill – one that many of them are familiar with.</p><p>Blackwood asks how many were picket captains in 1999. At least two-thirds of the hands go up.</p><p>A lot of this crowd picketed for 40 cold, wet days during the only major strike in SPEEA's history more than a decade ago. One of them was Judy Mogan, a technical designer who works in Auburn.</p><p>She says she's frustrated that Boeing is offering smaller wage increases to technicians than to engineers – she says the company's trying to divide the union.</p><blockquote><p>"It sounds so much like the 2000 version," Mogan said. "It seems like they've dug in and I truly think that they believe we won't strike."</p></blockquote><p>Mogan says Boeing executives are wrong. She says her coworkers are fed up.</p><blockquote><p>"They wanted to go out a month ago," Mogan said. "The first offer the company gave us, they would have voted to strike, out in the fab division where I work in Auburn. They didn't want to wait."</p></blockquote><p>Boeing officials have said their latest offer is fair. The company says it needs to reward employees and – at the same time - keep expenses in check – especially as health care costs soar. Talks will resume with a federal mediator early next year.</p>Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:29:39 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/picket-training-begins-speea-preps-possible-boeing-strike
http://www.kplu.org/post/picket-training-begins-speea-preps-possible-boeing-strike<p></p><p>Contract talks between Boeing and its engineers union are suspended till after the new year. But the union, SPEEA, is not standing still - they're training picket captains for a possible strike.</p><p><!--break--></p><p>About 60 Boeing engineers and technicians pack into a room at union headquarters at dinnertime. They munch on sandwiches and listen to SPEEA organizer Carrie Blackwood lay out the drill – one that many of them are familiar with.</p><p>Blackwood asks how many were picket captains in 1999. At least two-thirds of the hands go up.</p><p>A lot of this crowd picketed for 40 cold, wet days during the only major strike in SPEEA's history more than a decade ago. One of them was Judy Mogan, a technical designer who works in Auburn.</p><p>She says she's frustrated that Boeing is offering smaller wage increases to technicians than to engineers – she says the company's trying to divide the union.</p><blockquote><p>"It sounds so much like the 2000 version," Mogan said. "It seems like they've dug in and I truly think that they believe we won't strike."</p></blockquote><p>Mogan says Boeing executives are wrong. She says her coworkers are fed up.</p><blockquote><p>"They wanted to go out a month ago," Mogan said. "The first offer the company gave us, they would have voted to strike, out in the fab division where I work in Auburn. They didn't want to wait."</p></blockquote><p>Boeing officials have said their latest offer is fair. The company says it needs to reward employees and – at the same time - keep expenses in check – especially as health care costs soar. Talks will resume with a federal mediator early next year.</p>77no

Contract talks between Boeing and its engineers union are suspended till after the new year. But the union, SPEEA, is not standing still - they're training picket captains for a possible strike.

About 60 Boeing engineers and technicians pack into a room at union headquarters at dinnertime. They munch on sandwiches and listen to SPEEA organizer Carrie Blackwood lay out the drill – one that many of them are familiar with.

Blackwood asks how many were picket captains in 1999. At least two-thirds of the hands go up.

A lot of this crowd picketed for 40 cold, wet days during the only major strike in SPEEA's history more than a decade ago. One of them was Judy Mogan, a technical designer who works in Auburn.

She says she's frustrated that Boeing is offering smaller wage increases to technicians than to engineers – she says the company's trying to divide the union.

"It sounds so much like the 2000 version," Mogan said. "It seems like they've dug in and I truly think that they believe we won't strike."

Mogan says Boeing executives are wrong. She says her coworkers are fed up.

"They wanted to go out a month ago," Mogan said. "The first offer the company gave us, they would have voted to strike, out in the fab division where I work in Auburn. They didn't want to wait."

Boeing officials have said their latest offer is fair. The company says it needs to reward employees and – at the same time - keep expenses in check – especially as health care costs soar. Talks will resume with a federal mediator early next year.

]]>Boeing wants a federal mediator to help with SPEEA talks<p></p><p>After months of unsuccessful contract negotiations, Boeing says it wants a federal mediator to help resolve its contract dispute with SPEEA, the union that represents about 23,000 engineers and technicians in the Puget Sound region.</p><p><!--break--></p><blockquote><p>"We're really concerned there’s been a lack of progress in the past several weeks," Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said. "We’re trying to really exhaust every avenue to try to get some movement."</p></blockquote><p>SPEEA's latest contract offer of 6 percent wage increases over a three-year period would "move the salaries of our employees above the Puget Sound market," the company said in a statement. Boeing earlier this month proposed wage pools ranging from 3 percent to 4.5 percent over a four-year period, which SPEEA leaders criticized.</p><p>"It’s all about cost," Alder said. "We’re trying to keep them at the top of the market but not so far above it that we can’t attract work."</p><p>For its part, SPEEA says Boeing negotiators rejected the union's proposals and then stopped negotiating partway through talks today and requested a mediator.</p><blockquote><p>"We are disappointed that the Boeing negotiating team left negotiations today mid-session without committing to further negotiation dates," SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth said in an emailed statement. "SPEEA has already been in contact with the federal mediation and conciliation service. &#160;SPEEA is willing to consider any option to avoid a work stoppage. &#160;Our goal is to get a contract that reflects<br>the value our members bring to the Boeing Company."</p></blockquote><p>Aviation analyst Scott Hamilton says the company may have miscalculated by thinking that SPEEA would be easier to negotiate with than the machinists’ union.</p><p>"They just don’t have the same level of militancy and I think Boeing was counting on that to ultimately prevail," Hamilton said.</p><p>SPEEA members overwhelmingly rejected an earlier contract offer from Boeing. The current contract expired on Sunday, making it possible for the union to vote on strike authorization or for the company to lock out its employees. SPEEA engineers and technicians struck for 40 days in 2000, significantly disrupting production.</p>Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:35:06 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-wants-federal-mediator-help-speea-talks
http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-wants-federal-mediator-help-speea-talks<p></p><p>After months of unsuccessful contract negotiations, Boeing says it wants a federal mediator to help resolve its contract dispute with SPEEA, the union that represents about 23,000 engineers and technicians in the Puget Sound region.</p><p><!--break--></p><blockquote><p>"We're really concerned there’s been a lack of progress in the past several weeks," Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said. "We’re trying to really exhaust every avenue to try to get some movement."</p></blockquote><p>SPEEA's latest contract offer of 6 percent wage increases over a three-year period would "move the salaries of our employees above the Puget Sound market," the company said in a statement. Boeing earlier this month proposed wage pools ranging from 3 percent to 4.5 percent over a four-year period, which SPEEA leaders criticized.</p><p>"It’s all about cost," Alder said. "We’re trying to keep them at the top of the market but not so far above it that we can’t attract work."</p><p>For its part, SPEEA says Boeing negotiators rejected the union's proposals and then stopped negotiating partway through talks today and requested a mediator.</p><blockquote><p>"We are disappointed that the Boeing negotiating team left negotiations today mid-session without committing to further negotiation dates," SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth said in an emailed statement. "SPEEA has already been in contact with the federal mediation and conciliation service. &#160;SPEEA is willing to consider any option to avoid a work stoppage. &#160;Our goal is to get a contract that reflects<br>the value our members bring to the Boeing Company."</p></blockquote><p>Aviation analyst Scott Hamilton says the company may have miscalculated by thinking that SPEEA would be easier to negotiate with than the machinists’ union.</p><p>"They just don’t have the same level of militancy and I think Boeing was counting on that to ultimately prevail," Hamilton said.</p><p>SPEEA members overwhelmingly rejected an earlier contract offer from Boeing. The current contract expired on Sunday, making it possible for the union to vote on strike authorization or for the company to lock out its employees. SPEEA engineers and technicians struck for 40 days in 2000, significantly disrupting production.</p>62no

After months of unsuccessful contract negotiations, Boeing says it wants a federal mediator to help resolve its contract dispute with SPEEA, the union that represents about 23,000 engineers and technicians in the Puget Sound region.

"We're really concerned there’s been a lack of progress in the past several weeks," Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said. "We’re trying to really exhaust every avenue to try to get some movement."

SPEEA's latest contract offer of 6 percent wage increases over a three-year period would "move the salaries of our employees above the Puget Sound market," the company said in a statement. Boeing earlier this month proposed wage pools ranging from 3 percent to 4.5 percent over a four-year period, which SPEEA leaders criticized.

"It’s all about cost," Alder said. "We’re trying to keep them at the top of the market but not so far above it that we can’t attract work."

For its part, SPEEA says Boeing negotiators rejected the union's proposals and then stopped negotiating partway through talks today and requested a mediator.

"We are disappointed that the Boeing negotiating team left negotiations today mid-session without committing to further negotiation dates," SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth said in an emailed statement. "SPEEA has already been in contact with the federal mediation and conciliation service. SPEEA is willing to consider any option to avoid a work stoppage. Our goal is to get a contract that reflectsthe value our members bring to the Boeing Company."

Aviation analyst Scott Hamilton says the company may have miscalculated by thinking that SPEEA would be easier to negotiate with than the machinists’ union.

"They just don’t have the same level of militancy and I think Boeing was counting on that to ultimately prevail," Hamilton said.

SPEEA members overwhelmingly rejected an earlier contract offer from Boeing. The current contract expired on Sunday, making it possible for the union to vote on strike authorization or for the company to lock out its employees. SPEEA engineers and technicians struck for 40 days in 2000, significantly disrupting production.

]]>Boeing engineers inch closer to a strike after 'disappointing' second contract offer <p></p><p>The union representing Boeing engineers is moving closer to a strike authorization. That’s because union leadership is frustrated with the aerospace giant’s second contract offer.</p><p>Boeing is now offering higher annual wage increases than its first proposal, which 96 percent of engineers and technicians rejected. But the increases are still lower than the current contract. That’s one reason the union – known as SPEEA – is disappointed.</p><p>SPEEA President Tom McCarty says he’s frustrated that Boeing is comparing labor costs with other companies that have been hard hit by the recession – at a time when Boeing’s revenue and profits are soaring.</p><blockquote><p>"We really feel we should be sharing in that success rather than being benchmarked to an economy that’s been in decline for the past four years," McCarty said.</p></blockquote><p>Boeing wants workers to shoulder more in medical expenses, though the company reduced monthly employee premiums compared with its first offer. Boeing spokesman Doug Alder says the current contract is unsustainable and that the company needs to keep labor costs in check.</p><p>SPEEA’s Tom McCarty says the union will evaluate the proposal and go back to the bargaining table. The union hasn’t set a date for a strike authorization vote at this point. SPEEA engineers and technicians struck for 40 days in 2000 – significantly disrupting production.</p><p>To see Boeing's revised offer to engineers, click <a href="http://www.boeing.com/speea-negotiations/docs/profs-Contract-Highlights.pdf">here</a>. For the company's revised offer to technicians, click <a href="http://www.boeing.com/speea-negotiations/docs/techs-Contract-Highlights.pdf">here</a>.</p>Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:43:05 -0500http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-engineers-inch-closer-strike-after-disappointing-second-contract-offer
http://www.kplu.org/post/boeing-engineers-inch-closer-strike-after-disappointing-second-contract-offer<p></p><p>The union representing Boeing engineers is moving closer to a strike authorization. That’s because union leadership is frustrated with the aerospace giant’s second contract offer.</p><p>Boeing is now offering higher annual wage increases than its first proposal, which 96 percent of engineers and technicians rejected. But the increases are still lower than the current contract. That’s one reason the union – known as SPEEA – is disappointed.</p><p>SPEEA President Tom McCarty says he’s frustrated that Boeing is comparing labor costs with other companies that have been hard hit by the recession – at a time when Boeing’s revenue and profits are soaring.</p><blockquote><p>"We really feel we should be sharing in that success rather than being benchmarked to an economy that’s been in decline for the past four years," McCarty said.</p></blockquote><p>Boeing wants workers to shoulder more in medical expenses, though the company reduced monthly employee premiums compared with its first offer. Boeing spokesman Doug Alder says the current contract is unsustainable and that the company needs to keep labor costs in check.</p><p>SPEEA’s Tom McCarty says the union will evaluate the proposal and go back to the bargaining table. The union hasn’t set a date for a strike authorization vote at this point. SPEEA engineers and technicians struck for 40 days in 2000 – significantly disrupting production.</p><p>To see Boeing's revised offer to engineers, click <a href="http://www.boeing.com/speea-negotiations/docs/profs-Contract-Highlights.pdf">here</a>. For the company's revised offer to technicians, click <a href="http://www.boeing.com/speea-negotiations/docs/techs-Contract-Highlights.pdf">here</a>.</p>69no

The union representing Boeing engineers is moving closer to a strike authorization. That’s because union leadership is frustrated with the aerospace giant’s second contract offer.

Boeing is now offering higher annual wage increases than its first proposal, which 96 percent of engineers and technicians rejected. But the increases are still lower than the current contract. That’s one reason the union – known as SPEEA – is disappointed.

SPEEA President Tom McCarty says he’s frustrated that Boeing is comparing labor costs with other companies that have been hard hit by the recession – at a time when Boeing’s revenue and profits are soaring.

"We really feel we should be sharing in that success rather than being benchmarked to an economy that’s been in decline for the past four years," McCarty said.

Boeing wants workers to shoulder more in medical expenses, though the company reduced monthly employee premiums compared with its first offer. Boeing spokesman Doug Alder says the current contract is unsustainable and that the company needs to keep labor costs in check.

SPEEA’s Tom McCarty says the union will evaluate the proposal and go back to the bargaining table. The union hasn’t set a date for a strike authorization vote at this point. SPEEA engineers and technicians struck for 40 days in 2000 – significantly disrupting production.

To see Boeing's revised offer to engineers, click here. For the company's revised offer to technicians, click here.